Elite Capture or Exclusion? Insights From China's Targeted Poverty Alleviation Strategy

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the role of political elites in China's Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) program using data from the 2017 Thousand‐Person Hundred‐Village (TPHV) survey. The findings reveal a negative correlation between a household's political elite status and its registration in TPA. This exclusion is probably not due to ineligibility but rather to a deliberate selection process aimed at limiting elite influence. Additionally, higher‐level government involvement contributes to the lower likelihood of elite household registration. Finally, we find that households with village committee members experience lower TPA registration rates, and economic and educational elites are similarly excluded from the program.